From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Tue, 08 Jun 1999 15:57:53 -0500

To answer your question about about "Watership Down" by Richard Adams being marketed to children in Great Briatain and adults in the U.S., Barbara Barstow, Children's Services Manager at Cuyahoga County Public Library in Ohio, very kindly sought out the answer from Greenwillow editor Susan Hirschman, who at the time worked for Macmillan. This is Susan's response:

"I went to London for an annual business trip in the spring of l972 or l973, I am not sure without checking, and I am not home. My friend Julia MacRae, who was Children's Book Editor at Hamish Hamilton, told me I had to get hold of a book published that spring called WATERSHIP DOWN. It had been turned down by most major children's book publishers, including Julia, because of its length. Most of them apparently had not really read it--just looked at its bulk. It was published eventually by a very small house--Rex Collings--and published as a children's book. It was getting an enormous amount of press coverage, and Julia was determined that I should read it.

"I remember thinking "Who needs four hundred pages about rabbits", but Julia bought the book and presented it to me. I read it on the plane home, and was hooked from the start.

"There was no doubt in my mind that we should publish it. I thought it would be a small classic, and that we would have no trouble selling l0,000 copies and keeping the book in print. But I loved it so much that I wanted everyone to read it. I gave it to Janet Schulman, our Marketing Director, and she thought it was terrific. She saw at once that it could have a broader market than I had envisioned, and gave it to Pat Breinan, the Subsidiary Rights Director for the house. She also recognized its potential. It was decided by everyone at Macmillan that it made more sense to publish the book on the adult list rather than on the children's list. We knew that the book would reach kids if this was done, but that it would not reach the adults if it was originated on a children's list. There was precedent for this--Fred Gipson's OLD YELLER--and I'm sure other books as well.

"WATERSHIP DOWN was published by Macmillan as a major trade title. The paperback rights were sold to Avon for a then record-breaking million dollars. And of course it did indeed reach the children's market immediately.

"I do not remember Richard Adams talking about the audience for whom he wrote it. But it was certainly first published in England as a children's book and I don't remember any stories about it having been submitted to any publisher there as an adult book. In England the paperback rights had been licensed to Puffin, and Kaye Webb of Puffin was enormously enthusiastic about it. I do not know what happened eventually to the paperback in England, but certainly it was originally launched in paper as a children's book." ?-Susan C. Hirschman

Thanks, Barb, for going directly to the source on behalf of CCBC-Net! And please thank Susan Hirschman for having taken the time to give us this background on
"Watership Down."

It seems that now would be a good time to launch into our discussion of this book. Since "Watership Down" was published in the U.S. as an adult book, I'm curious to know if any of you out there find that children in the U.S. either read it in the past or are reading it today.



Kathleen T. Horning (horning at ccbc.education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 608&3930 FAX: 608&2I33
Received on Tue 08 Jun 1999 03:57:53 PM CDT